The
Center of the World (2001)
Imagine if Gary Franks (playing Willie
in "Family") and Sharon Stone (in full "Basic Instinct"
mode) starred in a dark, dark remake of "Pretty Woman"
and you have an idea of what to expect from "The Center
of the World." Director Wayne Wang takes us into a
modern love story about isolation and the inability
of males and females to relate emotionally in the
computer age. In it's unspooling, Wang's digital video
film recalls "Last Tango in Paris," "Leaving
Las Vegas," "Showgirls," "Mumford"
and numerous other films.
Wang's film takes a long, long time
to get used to. His characters are not likable and
not interesting. Even though this is as it must be,
it makes for a dreadful first 20 minutes. It seems
almost impossible to become involved in the film.
Computer nerd Richard (as in Gere in "Pretty Woman")
meets musician/ice queen/stripper Florence and tries
to initiate a relationship. Stymied by her emotional
frigidity and his inability to romantically engage
her, he offers to take her to Las Vegas for a weekend
and to pay her for her time. She agrees but with regulations,
including a timed interim for their lovemaking. She
also stipulates no kissing on the mouth and no penetration.
For this Richard agrees to pay $10,000.
Wang begins the story in Vegas and
then shunts back and forth in time so that we can
see how Richard (Peter Sarsgaard) and Florence (Molly
Parker) get together and make their arrangement. It's
a rather tedious set-up. But as the dynamic of the
relationship opens to us, we learn much about the
characters and get easily engrossed in their story.
At the start, Richard, a computer genius
who is newly rich, has almost no idea how to relate
to other humans, in particular females. Florence,
meanwhile, is a stripper and a drummer, and for obvious
reasons. As a stripper, she has isolated herself from
emotion, making sex simply "work" and something that
can be bartered for cash. Her emotions do not enter
into the situation or so she feels. She is also a
drummer and Wang shows us a beautiful moment in the
film where she plays with her band. Here the obvious
traits of her character become even more apparent
as she is brutal, perfect and myopic as a musician.
Again, cold and emotionless, she keeps perfect time
and controls the entire musical piece. This is a woman
who must feel in control, who cannot allow her emotions
to rule her, who must focus always at the task at
hand yet never stops to enjoy it.
From the start Florence is obviously
in charge. Richard, in contrast, is a wuss of the
highest order and emotionally retarded due to his
cyber existence. He is a boy, really. It is no accident
that after his first "handjob" from Florence, after
his climax, he giggles like a schoolboy. His immaturity
is also why he offers Florence money in the first
place. Childlike, yet a cyber porn freak, he has no
other knowledge of how to get what he wants other
than to offer money for it. Florence, meanwhile, has
turned herself off emotionally and, as a person who
works in the sex industry, makes his offer as probable
as her acceptance.
At one point in the film, Richard calls
his computer, with Internet considered, "The center
of the world." Later, Florence will refer to the vagina
utilizing the same term. This is how they see the
world, Richard, at the center of all male need, being
artificially fulfilled by his cyber connection to
reality yet longing truly for a real emotional relationship;
Florence, invoking birth and motherhood but really
talking about her ability to control men and situations
with her feminine charms. Her vagina is a weapon and
a commodity and not a "womb" nor a sex organ, as she
intones. Yet, it is always her focal point.
However, as the two become closer during
the weekend, we see that Florence is not the controlled
woman she presents. She is a real person struggling
to maintain her facade of a dominant female. Her cracks,
where her human frailties and human emotions show
through, confuse Richard, who begins to think of her
as lover, rather than whore. As Richard tries to extricate
himself out of the emotional hole he has dug, he finds
Florence unwilling to allow the relationship to flower
into something "real." When he finally does emerge
from his shell, he finds nothing and no one waiting
for him at the surface.
Wang and his writers craft deep and
intricate characters here. Sarsgaard and Parker are
on screen almost all of the time as the leads and
they often engage in sexual scenarios. They are daring
and brilliant. They bring these perfectly crafted
characters to abhorrent life. It is often hard to
watch them collide, show their scars and then recoil
into their shells. Yet if it were not for these actors,
there is no way we could become involved in these
characters' tale; it is far to vacuous and frigid.
The characters, and by extension the actors, only
come into focus for us in small moments, when their
true characters peek through a crack in their masks.
It is these actors who make the characters their shells
and then bring forth the cracks, and show briefly
the glimpses of the humanity inside. It's remarkable
and subtle work.
Wang also allows us to engage in this
frigidity and vapidity via his visual sense. His film,
shot in digital video, is often pixilated and coarse.
At times the images are devoid of color; at others,
blanketed in rich opulence. Often the color washes
out completely, leaving us only a expurgated vision
of reality. Albeit, Wang's visual sense sometimes
falls into the "flashbacks in B&W" imagery, but more
often than not, his eye is keen and adept. His world
is real. And his pixilated images recall the images
of computer screens and pornography, which is essential
to the plot and themes here.
"The Center of the World" is one of
the most complex and fascinating looks at the intrinsic
deficiencies of modern male/female relationships to
hit the screen since "Last Tango in Paris." Distilled
into pure character and plot, the film says that we,
as modern humans in an age of cyber sex and strip
clubs, are caged and alone. It says that we have turned
sex and emotion into commodity. In the end, at the
center of our self-imposed exile from human relationships,
is a loneliness and emptiness that we cannot escape
from. In the end, as Richard and Florence show us,
the only way to survive is to give ourselves over
to what we, as humanity, hath wrought.
Notes:
Also with Balthazar Getty (who seems
to be playing Charlie Sheen playing a role as Richard's
friend) and Carla Gugino (the mom from "Spy
Kids" as a whore).
Wang worked with several writers to
mold the piece including performance artist Miranda
July.
Artisan decided to grant Wang his vision,
which includes a couple of pornographic moments, and
allow the film to be released without MPAA rating.
The distributor also did this last year with Darren
Aronofsky's "Requiem
for a Dream."
